If you ever dreamed of spending your golden years somewhere warm together with your best friends, then this is the sitcom to watch: The Golden Girls created by Susan Harris. Set in the sunshine state of Florida, this show is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon! Here of course we go through the cast that I’m fairly sure many of you remember. And although with the passing of Betty White in New Year’s Eve 2021 all of them have now passed away, luckily for us they can forever entertain us on the screen. Continue reading

In the year 1955, an incident in an Alabama bus leads later to bus segregation being ruled unconstitutional (Mar 2), Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister at age 80 (Apr 5), West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by leading Western countries (May 5), Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California (Jul 17), first edition of the _Guinness Book of Records _is published (Aug 27), ITV begins broadcasting in the U.K. (Sep 22), Alfred Hitchcock Presents debuts on CBS (Oct 2), Rebel Without a Cause is released in the United States (Oct 27), the correct number of human chromosomes - 46 - is discovered (Dec 22) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1954, the first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Feb 23), U.S. officials announce that a hydrogen bomb test has been conducted on Bikini Atoll (Mar 1), From Here to Eternity wins the Oscar for best picture (Mar 25), the world’s first atomic power station opens near Moscow (Jun 27), Ellis Island in New York closes (Nov 12), the first hotel built on an airport property - The Hyatt House Los Angeles - opens (Dec 1), The U. Continue reading

In the year 1959, the United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro (Jan 7), the Boeing 707 airliner begins service (Jan 25), Mattel’s Barbie doll debuts in the U.S. (Mar 9), Busch Gardens opens in Tampa, Florida and the Dalai Lama is granted asylum in India (Mar 31), two monkeys sent to space from Cape Canaveral become the first living beings to return safely to Earth (May 28), the first skull of Australopithecus is discovered by the Leakeys in Tanzania (Jul 17), Bonanza premiers, first regularly scheduled TV program in color (Sep 12), the first plain paper copier, Xerox 914, is introduced to the public (Sep 19) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1958, the EEC comes into being (Jan 1), the first successful American satellite is launched into orbit (Jan 31), Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (Mar 19), The Bridge on the River Kwai wins seven Academy Awards (Mar 26), Pizza Hut is founded (Jun 15), the first parking meters are installed in Britain (Jul 10), The Beatles record their first songs (Jul 12), NASA is founded (Jul 29), the first television show recorded on color videotape airs on NBC (Oct 17), the United States launches SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

First regular post service in Germany connects Mechelen and Innsbruck, Catholic missionaries arrive in the African Kingdom of Kongo, Chinese scholar and printer Hua Sui invents bronze-metal movable type printing in China, Leonardo da Vinci develops an oil lamp, merchants carrying coffee from Yemen to Mecca present the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking - and all these fine people were born: 1490-10xx Olaus Magnus* Archbishop of Uppsala - Skeninge, Sweden (1557/66) 1491-0628 Henry VIII of England* - Greenwich, Kent, England (1547/55) 1491-1023 Ignatius of Loyola* - Azpeitia, Basque, Spain (1556/64) 1491-1231 Jacques Cartier* explorer for France/the first European to map the river Saint Lawrence and its shores which he named “The Country of Canadas” after the Iroquoian names for the area - Saint-Malo, Duchy of Brittany (1557/65) 1492-xxx Jürgen Wullenwever* merchant/burgomaster of Lübeck - Hamburg, Germany (1537/c. Continue reading

In the year 1470, Charles II of Sweden, having served three terms as King of Sweden, dies (May 15), the Ottomans capture Euboea (today’s Evia) (Jul 12), Henry VI of England is released from the Tower of London, and is restored to the throne (Oct 3), between this year and 1700, 8888 witches are tried in the Swiss Confederation, and of them 5417 are executed, Johann Heynlin introduces the printing press into France, Sir George Ripley dedicates his book _The Compound of Alchemy _to the King Edward IV of England - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

[caption id=“attachment_3453” align=“alignleft” width=“378”]Fort Qaitbey at Alexandria[/caption] Treaty of Toledo is signed where Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain recognize the African conquests of Afonso, and Afonso cedes the Canary Islands to Spain (Mar 6), the Ottomans attack the city of Otranto in Italy, and behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam (Aug 12), Spain initiates the Spanish Inquisition, to last for three decades and involving around 150,000 prosecutions (Sep 27), the last remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria disappear as the defensive fortress Citadel of Qaitbey is built on its site - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

The cannons of the Tower of London are fired on the city of London, now mostly in Yorkist hands (Jul 4), and the Tower ends up surrendering (Jul 19), Wars of the Roses between Lancastrians and Yorkists go on in England until 1487, Portuguese navigator Pedro de Sintra reaches the coast of modern-day Sierra Leone - and all these fine people were born: 1460-xxx Vasco da Gama* or 1469 Portuguese explorer - Sines, Kingdom of Portugal (1524/64? Continue reading

In the year 1450, French troops defeat an English army trying to relieve Caen in northwestern France (Apr), Charles VIII of Sweden loses the Norwegian throne to Christian I of Denmark (May 13), Cherbourg, the last English territory in Normandy, surrenders to the French (Aug 12), the University of Barcelona is founded (Nov 3), Johannes Gutenberg sets up his movable type printing press as a commercial operation in Mainz - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

Pick one year or decade between 1401 and 1500! If you have ancestors born during this century that you know of, you can have them added in the list by simply leaving a comment in the box below the year or decade in question. 1400s - 1410s - 1420s - 1430s - 1440s - 1450s - 1460s - 1470s - 1480s - 1490s Here individual years will be few and far between unless we will get plenty of requests from genealogists. Continue reading

In the year 1925, Benito Mussolini makes his pivotal speech in Italy (Jan 3), the first issue of The New Yorker appears (Feb 21), the Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Chrysler (Jun 6), Adolf Hitler publishes Volume I of Mein Kampf (Jul 18), the Ku Klux Klan parades in Washington D.C. (Aug 8), Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated in South Dakota (Oct 1), the first London double-deckers are introduced (Oct 2) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1940, Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Germany (Jan 4), food rationing begins in Great Britain (Jan 8), Pinocchio is released in theaters everywhere (Feb 7), peace treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union ends the Winter War (Mar 12), Germany invades Denmark and Norway (Apr 9), Battle of France begins, and Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister in the U.K. (May 10), the first McDonald’s opens in San Bernardino, California (May 15), Auschwitz-Birkenau opens in occupied Poland (May 20), Battle of Britain begins (Jul 7), the first bombing of Berlin by the RAF takes place (Aug 25), the retaliating 57-day long Blitz by the Nazis starts in London (Sep 7), the WW2 rages on - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1941, U.S. President F.D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a third term (Jan 20), plutonium is discovered (Feb 23), Citizen Kane premieres in New York City (May 1), the world’s first working programmable, fully automatic computer is presented in Berlin (May 12), Operation Barbarossa begins (Jun 22), Finland as a co-belligerent with Germany attacks the Soviet Union to start the Continuation War (Jun 25), the world’s first TV commercial is aired on NBC (Jul 1), the requirement to wear the Star of David is extended to all Jews over the age of six in German-occupied areas (Sep 6), construction of The Pentagon begins (Sep 12), last day of carving on Mount Rushmore (Oct 31), Japanese aircraft attack Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (Dec 7), Thailand and Japan sign a military alliance (Dec 21), the World War II and the Holocaust continue - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1952, West Germany has 8 million refugees inside its borders (Jan 8), Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom (Feb 7), Wernher von Braun publishes his ideas on space travel (Mar 22), East Germany threatens to form its own army (May 1), the Summer Olympics commence in Helsinki, Finland (Jul 19), Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States (Jul 25), West Germany agrees to pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks to Israel for the costs of resettling the Jewish refugees after the war (Aug 27), NSA is founded (Nov 4), the first successful sex reassignment surgery is performed in Copenhagen, Denmark (Nov 20), the first successful surgical separation of Siamese twins is conducted in Cleveland, Ohio (Dec 14) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1964, for the first time in the United States, smoking is officially said to be dangerous (Jan 11), Beatlemania begins as the Beatles land at JFK airport (Feb 7), Malcolm X claims he will form a black nationalist party, and Cassius Clay changes his name to Muhammad Ali (Mar 6), the game show Jeopardy! debuts on NBC (Mar 30), Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award (Apr 13), the Rolling Stones release their debut album (Apr 16), Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison (Jun 12), racial segregation is officially abolished in the U. Continue reading

In the year 1963, Betty Friedan’s _The Feminine Mystique _ reawakens the Women’s Movement in the U.S. (Feb 19), the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes (Mar 21), the Beatles release their first album (Mar 22), Hitchcock’s The Birds is released in the U.S. (Mar 28), the first James Bond film is released (May 8), Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space (Jun 16), President John F. Kennedy gives his Ich bin ein Berliner speech in West Berlin, East Germany (Jun 26), Martin Luther King Jr. Continue reading

[caption id=“attachment_2034” align=“alignright” width=“355”]Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier in 1956[/caption] In the year 1962, New York City introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board (Jan 4), Cuba and the Soviet Union sign a trade pact (Jan 9), first Kmart store is opened (Mar 1), Taco Bell is founded (Mar 21), first Walmart store is opened (Jul 2), Algeria becomes independent from France (Jul 5), the Rolling Stones make their debut (Jul 12), Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home in L. Continue reading

In the year 1986, the first PC virus starts to spread (Jan 19), space shuttle Challenger explodes right after launch (Jan 28), Pixar Animation Studios open in California (Feb 3), the Soviet Union launches the Mir space station (Feb 19), Olof Palme is shot to death in Stockholm (Feb 28), Rendez-vous Concert in Houston by Jean-Michel Jarre (Apr 5), leak at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl spreads disaster (Apr 26), Desmond Tutu becomes the first black bishop in South Africa (Sep 7), the Oprah Winfrey Show premieres in syndication (Sep 8), the Phantom of the Opera opens in London (Oct 9), Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title (Nov 22) - and all these fine people were born: Continue reading

In the year 1985, the Internet Domain Name System is created (Jan 1), We Are The World is recorded (Jan 28), Mikhail Gorbachev becomes new leader of the Soviet Union (Mar 11), Madonna launches her first concert tour (Apr 10), South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages (Apr 15), ozone hole is discovered (May 16), the Schengen Area is born (Jun 14), Live Aid concerts raise money for Ethiopia (Jul 13), the first smoking ban in restaurants is passed in Aspen, Colorado (Aug 28), the Nintendo game Super Mario is released (Sep 13), the space shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight (Oct 3), Microsoft releases the first version of Windows, Windows 1. Continue reading